I received my calcium chloride and liquid rennet and what a difference.  I’ve now made a gouda and a Montasio with a beautiful clean break both times.  Funny what can excite a person.  (Ooh! a clean break!)  Everything else in the process seemed to go well too.  Now the hard part is waiting.  Guess I’ll have to make a couple a week for a while so I can have a bit of stock on hand.  Right now there’s no problem keeping the crawl space at 55 degrees but will have to keep my eye open for a wine fridge before summer comes.
By the way my brother and law and I tried a 30 minute mozzarella which was lots of fun.  Found it tasted a little doughy for my taste though. 
The most delicious part so far has been the cheese spreads I’ve made from the ricotta.
Thanks for answers to questions I’m sure they’ll be more.
Mike

It’s easy to get hooked when things go right!
Did you add lipase to the mozzarella? That will add a piquant taste, suggesting it might get rid of the doughy taste.

Well I spoke too soon.  I took the Montasio out of the Brine and it was starting to come apart.
It was like the curds never really knit together well.  So I warmed it slowly to 110 degrees and am now pressing with a little more pressure.
We’ll see what happens.

Mike,
First of all, congratulations on your initial success. I agree that there is nothing that feels quite as good (at least at my age) as a nice clean break.
This is an extremely easy hobby to get hooked on.
I’ve been making cheese for three years now and, if anything, the thrill is stronger now than it’s ever been.
I’m also interested in the size of wheel you are making and the amount of weight you are using to press your cheese.
In my personal experience I’ve found that as you go up in wheel size (6”, 7-1/2”, 8” diameter) the pressing weight has to increase to get the curds to knit together well.
Of course there are also many other variables such as cooking temperature and PH, but I’ve honestly never had a problem with those parts of the process.
Since I’ve increased my pressing weights I’ve never had a single problem with getting my curd to knit together and I think that others (Green Cheese Maker, especially) will agree.
If you will do a quick search you will find numerous posts concerning this subject. It all has to do with pounds per square inch that you are exerting on your wheel.
Btw…..
This is not my discovery. I was coaxed by other home cheese makers to give this method a try and I have to say that I’ve had nothing but great results from following their advice.
Even if this particular curd does not knit together as well as you might like, don’t toss it.
Simply put it in your cave and give it a try in a month or so. You might be pleasantly surprised at the taste, even if the texture isn’t exactly what you had in mind.

Dave

Good to hear !!! yes its addictive and fun to see and eat once creation

Hi Dave

I followed the recipe from Ricki Carols book.  It called for a maximum pressing weight of ten pounds.  This seemed very low to me as I used 40 for the gouda and it came out very well.  Still what do I know.  Anyway my mold is four inch pvc.  I repressed at about 25 lbs and it did improve it although you can still see the odd crack.  I rubbed some salt on the outside and will leave it for about a month and give it a try.  I want to try again but I am pretty nervous of only using ten pounds force.  I think I will use about 25 to start with.  Are you saying that you are using a higher pressing weight than the recipe calls for?

Not necessarily a higher pressing weight than called for.  Rather, we compute the psi over the surface of the cheese and then compensate for larger mold size.  If you are using a 4” mold, then the recipe weights are correct.  However, a bit of added weight will not hurt you at all.  I was wondering if you had the correct concentration of salt in your brine?  If it was too much on the plain water end of the spectrum, it will dissolve your cheese.  I had that problem with haloumi - it just soaked up the water and got real mushy.

It could well be that the curds got too cold before they were pressed!
I have had a couple where this happened, so resolved to keep the curds at the cooking temp until they were in the mould. Also making sure the mould is up to temp is also important.
Waiting for a drain time in the open, plus the shock of a cold mould will cause a hardening of the curds, preventing a decent meld, regardless of the amount of pressure.
Just my 2 cents worth.

Thanks for the comments. 
The curd was transferred at the correct temperature however I did not warm the mold.
As for the brine the recipe called for a saturated solution so I don’t see how it could have been too much salt.
I want to try again but am a little gun shy of the 10 pounds pressing weight.
By the way this was a mixture of cow and goats milk if you think that could make a difference.
The cheese is drying in the crawlspace.  It stayed together after repressing but there are cracks which I assume means it will be crumbly.
Thanks again.